Bird's nest may have caused house fire in Hudson

May 20. 2013 8:32PMHUDSON — A bird’s nest is being eyed as the cause of a one-alarm fire in the early morning hours Monday that left a single-family home uninhabitable.

Fire engines from Hudson and Nashua responded to the fire at 2:20 a.m. Monday. The occupants of the home on B Street, Merilyn and Karrie Carnes, were outside at the time the firefighters arrived and were unharmed.

The fire was centered in the attic of the ranch-style house, and consumed much of the roof before the firefighters were able to extinguish it.

The occupants will not be able to live in the home until the roof is fixed and the electrical system has been inspected, according to the Hudson Fire Department.

At least an eighth of the roof has been burned off, and there’s ceiling damage in the kitchen and living room, as well as smoke and water damage throughout the main floor and basement, according to the department.

The fire department said the most probable cause of the fire was a robin’s nest that had been built on top of a motion-sensing outside light. The Carneses told the firefighters that they believed the fire had started in the area of the light.

“The ordinary combustibles that birds use to make nests can dry out and ignite at comparatively low temperatures,” the Hudson Fire Department said in a news release.

From the area where the light was, the fire appears to have spread to the attic.

The fire department noted that the cause of the fire is still officially undetermined.